Votes, Votes, Votes: Explaining the Long Road to Emigrant Enfranchisement in Ireland

Enfranchisement of emigrant citizens living outside their home states has been a notable trend in recent decades. While emigrant voting rights are viewed by some as an important part of the wave of suffrage reforms that began in the 1970s, for others they are a contested development that rupture the essence of democracy by breaking the link between citizenship and residence. This article connects insights from the emigrant voting literature with historical institutionalism to argue that the longstanding avoidance of emigrant enfranchisement in the Republic of Ireland was overcome during the Great Recession because of an economic imperative, the need for greater investment from the emigrant community. Diaspora campaigners explicitly linked economic engagement with political rights and the pathway to the policy reform was set. The government gave a commitment in 2017 to hold a referendum to implement the emigrant franchise reform and it is scheduled for 2022, having been initially delayed by the Covid 19 pandemic.

Affordable Housing In Toronto: Legislative And Regulatory Tools For Municipal LED Development

This paper analyses the regulatory and legislative tools for affordable housing in Toronto. Through a review of relevant literature and interviews with key informants, key trends in affordable housing in Toronto have been identified. An analysis of affordable housing in Vancouver and Montreal is provided to show divergences and similarities in other Canadian cities. Key findings of this research reveal several trends. Firstly, past funding of housing was often rationalized as an economic imperative, rather than as a social policy issue. Secondly, federal retrenchment and Ontario government offloading have placed responsibility for housing on Toronto, which has neither the financial nor regulatory tools to adequately fund housing. Thirdly, this lack of capacity has led Toronto to adopt a more entrepreneurial approach to housing, using public-private partnerships, social mix revitalization initiatives, and other market influenced development mechanisms. These findings highlight difficulties on the part of Toronto to develop new affordable housing at a time when the city continues to grow and demand for housing is increasing.

Affordable Housing In Toronto: Legislative And Regulatory Tools For Municipal LED Development

This paper analyses the regulatory and legislative tools for affordable housing in Toronto. Through a review of relevant literature and interviews with key informants, key trends in affordable housing in Toronto have been identified. An analysis of affordable housing in Vancouver and Montreal is provided to show divergences and similarities in other Canadian cities. Key findings of this research reveal several trends. Firstly, past funding of housing was often rationalized as an economic imperative, rather than as a social policy issue. Secondly, federal retrenchment and Ontario government offloading have placed responsibility for housing on Toronto, which has neither the financial nor regulatory tools to adequately fund housing. Thirdly, this lack of capacity has led Toronto to adopt a more entrepreneurial approach to housing, using public-private partnerships, social mix revitalization initiatives, and other market influenced development mechanisms. These findings highlight difficulties on the part of Toronto to develop new affordable housing at a time when the city continues to grow and demand for housing is increasing.

Outward Foreign Direct Investment – Looking back at Qatar’s London Investments

This article focuses on the Middle Eastern State of Qatar’s UK investments as a back-up or legitimacy seeking exercise rather than a strategic economic imperative <i>per se</i>. With investments in France, Spain (Catalan) and England (notably London), Qatar seems to have inadvertently provided itself with a contingency plan, which has only become clearer to the world following the now resolved estranged relationships with its Arabian Gulf siblings – UAE, KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Bahrain and also Egypt since June 2016.

Outward Foreign Direct Investment – Looking back at Qatar’s London Investments

This article focuses on the Middle Eastern State of Qatar’s UK investments as a back-up or legitimacy seeking exercise rather than a strategic economic imperative <i>per se</i>. With investments in France, Spain (Catalan) and England (notably London), Qatar seems to have inadvertently provided itself with a contingency plan, which has only become clearer to the world following the now resolved estranged relationships with its Arabian Gulf siblings – UAE, KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), Bahrain and also Egypt since June 2016.

Emerging Themes, Concepts, and Solutions to Urban Challenges in Africa

Development realities confronting African cities truly call for contemporary and innovative solution that is crosscutting in concept, cost effective in implementation, and socially inclusive in impact. However, one of the most recent urban development models (smart city concept) envisioned as appropriate solution and promoted as conduit to good quality of life and socio-economic efficiency has been criticised on the ground of its economic imperative and over dependency on highly skilled digital platform to be successful. In this paper, the author proposes sharing city concept as African alternative and supplement to smart city concept. Using smart city potentials and urban challenges discussed around it, the paper adopted a systematic literature review design and evaluated sharing city concept against the backdrop outlined by smart city opponents and urban challenges peculiar to it. The result revealed that sharing city concept could serve as alternative where smart city is not viable and as supplement where it is feasible.

Provincial Poverty in Nepal

Poverty is not only the severe economic condition of people but it is also the cultural, ethical, social, political, psychological and economic imperative of mankind. It is one of the distressing circumstances of people in developing countries have to contend with in their daily lives. It is common among the low and middle income class in these countries like Nepal. This research is based on the multidimensional poverty index (MPI) such as those related to education, health, material wellbeing, energy, water and sanitation, structure of house, and access to other services, varies considerably in seven provinces of Nepal. It illustrates the importance of location-specific data in the development of effective poverty reduction strategies of federal and provincial governments. The MPI shows that, the 28.6%of the people of Nepal are still multi-dimensionally poor meaning that their lives are battered by several deprivations simultaneously. This paper also discusses about the trends and measurement of poverty in Nepal as well as the provincial socio-economic conditions and distribution of poverty.

NATO’s Internal Deepening, Endurance, and Expansion: Economic Incentives and Gains as an Explanatory Complement to Realist Alliance Theory

NATO endured the end of the Cold War in 1991, its members deepened their commitment to the alliance, and it expanded considerably. Its survival fundamentally challenges the logic of realism, prompting two essential questions. First, is it possible to salvage realist alliance theory in the face of its apparent failure to explain NATO's continuing operation? This article contends that realism is repairable and salvageable in this context. Second, if realism is still a viable argument about NATO's endurance, how can it explain it? This article adds a complementary and still-missing explanation to realism based on economic incentives and gains. It argues that economic considerations such as the high cost and complexity to research, design, develop, and produce cost-efficiently modern, sophisticated, and technically complex weapon systems represented a substantial financial undertaking for NATO's great power members. The unparalleled economic burden prompted allies to pull resources together instead of seeking security unilaterally or through other alignment alternatives. The economic imperative of the modern defense industry is an essential and overlooked variable among realist and non-realist perspectives. Economic incentives affected in unprecedented ways the strategic calculus of NATO's great powers and, thus, causes their increased commitment to the alliance, its endurance, and expansion.